The present invention comprises a new and distinct cultivar of geranium, botanically known as Pelargonium hortorum Bailey, and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar named Americana Dark Red. The new cultivar is propagated from a seedling resulting from the cross of a seed parent 3459-3, a dark red, single flower, breeding line and a second breeding line that was used as the pollen parent known as 3126-3. This parent has a dark red, semi-double flower form.
Americana Dark Red is a product of a planned breeding program intended to create new geranium cultivars with dark red colored flowers, semi-double flower form, green foliage, vigorous growth and superior cutting productivity.
The new cultivar was created in 1992 in Gilroy, Calif. and has been repeatedly asexually reproduced by cuttings in Gilroy, Calif. and Guatemala over a two year period. It has also been trailed at Okemos, Mich. It has been found to retain its distinctive characteristics through successive propagations; and this novelty appears to be firmly fixed.